Thanks for the pics. We can never fathom the investment you guy have in equipment just to keep us all fed. Thanks for the endless work the farming community does.
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
Doc, the grinder pictured gets it's power from the truck engine. Must be a hella stout 'transer' box!
Gopher, I should clarify that we hire the grinder work, that is not our machine. They are indeed quite expensive and it would make no sense for us to buy our own. I forget the rate, around $200/hr I think.
Roger, felt like that song more than once!
Originally Posted by Salty303
Sam help a dude out.. when do you chop hay,why do you chop hay and what percentage of your hay through the year will you chop?
Salty,we chop maybe 3-5 times per year, Nov-April. The hay gets chopped so it takes on a 'mixable' form and in turn gets blended with corn silage and a 3/16" pellet in a mixer wagon. That is our feedlot ration. My dad mixes the loads so I'm not sure how many ton of actual ground hay we use a day.
This season we've probably ground up about 400 full size(1300-1600lb) round bales and that would be roughly 25% of our hay supply not including straw. We recently sold our feeder calves so that makes a big difference in how much ground hay we use.
I'll bore you all with the same old hay pile pics but it kinda gives an idea of how it works.
The baby yuppie tractor is pulling a mixer wagon. You dump in whatever feed you have on hand and it mixes it all up with three giant augers. The wagon has load sensors and a scale/weight readout monitor so you know exactly how much you are dumping in.
Far right in the pic is a pile of silage, left of that is a pile of the chopped/ground hay, the open end building holds the pellets and to the left of that is another pile of hay.
We get the pellets delivered from a feed mill. Had a delivery a couple hours ago. Uber handy.
Snake, inside my shelter now sipping on a beer. Man this cow farmin' is tough!
Thanks for the pics. We can never fathom the investment you guy have in equipment just to keep us all fed. Thanks for the endless work the farming community does.
Last week in December, watched Wagonhound Ranch doing the same for their cattle. That evening, about 300 elk came down to partake in the feast. Just got to watch with a zone 7 cow elk tag, a half mile away.
"Those that think they know everything are annoying those of us that have Google." - Dr. D. Edward Wilkinson
Note to self: Never ask an old Fogey how he is doing today. Revised note to self: Keep it short when someone asks how I am doing.
Always, you might be thinking of a different yuppie tractor. Lil Sweets(above) has had a few issues.... F'n computers do NOT belong in tractors.....
I bought a 2001 model that I bragged about..... That one is a bad ass machine.
Did they get that hydraulic remote issue fixed, Sam?
Barry, a hose hasn't popped off yet but I still have to heat the solenoids when it's 'really' cold overnight(-20F ambient). Hasn't been an issue but 2-3 times so far this easy winter!